Chef and hospitality consultant

Melbourne’s best dishes of 2016 (Good Food)

Well, 2016. You gave the world a proper shafting in most respects, but some things were pretty OK. Unless you were a hen. We had more chicken shops open than anyone would have thought possible – and if it wasn’t about rotisserie birds, it was chicken skin crackling on everything. In better news, looking back over the year’s best dishes, a lot of the heroes were vegetable based. Here’s hoping for more in the new year.

Cilbur and vinegary everything at Tulum

Everyone talks about the cilbur, and everyone is right. The browned butter meets sharp labne and a soft egg (for running through with chicken skin shards and pita) is a potent opening gambit in any language. But it’s the acid that cuts and slashes its way through the menu, often via house-made vinegars, that keeps Tulum on your mind. Hands in the air for the rosewater vinegar and melons all partying with pepitas and pinches of crab.

Vegan chocolate gelato at Piccolina Gelateria

Hawthorn got a new gelateria this year that’s a contender for the best in the city. Everything is made from scratch on premises – they even roast and grind their own peanut butter, and work with pure cacao powder and butter to make their chocolate numbers. It’s all impressive, pillowy fresh-off-the-churn stuff, but the vegan chocolate is so rich and creamy, it’s a big win for those who can’t or won’t do dairy.

Most things at French Saloon

Hell, what didn’t French Saloon do well this year? Starting off slowly, the pretty city loft above Kirk’s Wine Bar has become a force of European cooking. We loved the burrata, peach, hazelnut and leek salad of last summer; the charcuterie prettily fanned around dollops of mustard, the sweet-sharp escabeche with potato crisps and, obviously, the steaks. And now there are late-night burgers to consider.

Devilled eggs at Fancy Hank’s

Holy hen at Embla

Make a list of everything Dave Verheul pulled out of the fire-fueled oven this year and check it off twice. The crisped chicken and smoky jus gras; the gently intensified dry-aged flathead, the salt-baked celeriac … Even the bread, with the most chewy, crackling crust in town, which is served with whipped butter.

Salt and pepper vegetables at Bar Liberty

The salt and pepper vegetables at the renegade wine bar by Banjo Harris Plane, Michael Bascetta and the guys from Rockwell and Sons fragrantly fizzed and crackled their way into the hearts of all drinkers, going neck and neck with the GLT sambo – crisp chicken skin subbing bacon on a BLT.

Society potato at Igni

You could include so many things from Igni, the menu at Aaron Turner’s Geelong return to the scene, such as all the opening snacks (special snaps for the vinegared saltbush chips) and the roasted marron with buttery pil pil sauce and a pickle, but it was his veg work that knocked it out of the park. Notably the garlicky al dente potato tagliatelle and a hot roasted slab of beetroot washing in a whey and parmesan soup.